If you remember the 1950's the schools then used corporal punishment as discipline, meaning if you misbehaved you got spanked in front of the class bare bottom, sometimes with a paddle, I personally was born in the 1980's however, since then the schools have gone away with corporal punishment as discipline and that has led the schools to go down hill. personally we need corporal punishment in schools including spankings for misbehaving, this is how you keep children in school well behaved, many European countries use corporal punishment in their schools including bare bottom spankings with a paddle, their schools are top rated internationally and well behaved children with strict consequences for misbehaving. The movie overall was pretty boring and slow, I would have blocked out the showing of the naked bottom of the boy getting spanked by his teacher, instead I would have shown the part where the teacher drops his pants and bend him over her knee, then I would have gone to the shot showing his face at an upward angle, eliminating showing any bare parts of the child's bottom, because today this would be considered explicit video of a minor, and in today's society that would be taken harshly by the police and child protective services. The movie i would rate 3 out of 10 stars, was an alright movie, i would not watch the movie again though.

This movie was, firstly, nothing like what all the summaries, plots, etc. The mother wasn't abusive at all; maybe a bit neglectful, but I would call even that a stretch. In fact, the only 'abuse' is once when the father swats him, and we hear about the second time, when the brother tells Joe that his father punched their mother. Neglect, yeah, there's a lot of that. Were they crappy parents? Yeah, definitely. But to make it out like this kid 'suffers horrible abuse' is just insultingly ridiculous. Secondly, there was not a single character in this whole film who I really cared about at all. The parents were stupid, dense, and thick, the brother was willing to turn his back on Joe at any time, the teacher (played by a very disappointing Ethan Hawke) was -at least this was my impression, I'm sure people will disagree -a retarded moron, who didn't really care about Joe at all, the people at his job who alternate between nice and 'evil horrible monsters' so quickly it's not believable, and Joe's friends who end up betraying him, or turning their back on him. Again, most of this firm is unbelievable. Almost all of the characters go from evil demons to loving saints at some point, mostly in the blink of an eye. I also believe that the so called 'abuse' in this story helps perpetuate a large part of what is wrong with America today. There are real kids out there, who live in constant hell, not knowing whether or not today will be the day a family member takes the abuse too far and kills them. But I have continually seen films like this, and often times in real life, where a kid mouths off, his parent swats him, and it's 'OH MY GOD, THEY BEAT THE POOR CHILD!'. No. Joe had it pretty damn light compared to a lot of kids. All that aside... There still was not a single redeeming quality. Not even Joe himself. The boy brought on ninety percent of his own problems by being retarded. Horrible, horrible movie, with nothing going for it.

I did not like the movie because that Val Kilmer is that terrible to Noah Fliss. He should wind up in prison for the terrible things he had done to him. Also I did not like the way Camryn Manheim spanked that kid in the classroom. If she did that for real, she will wind up in a woman's prison and not have her teacher job anymore. Spanking in schools is very wrong and against the law which is why I am against the movie and refuse to see this anyhow. This shows proof that Noah Fliss should notify the Children's Aid Society and his psychiatrist over this matter and they would take further actions on them for what wrongful incidents Val Kilmer and Camryn Manheim did.

I know a great movie when I can enter it and be transported. Saw this on cable and was waiting for another show to start and kept flipping back. As 15 minutes I forgot about what I was supposed to watch. This film rang true to a lot of junior high memories and should be required viewing for those in the teaching profession and for women to see what life is like for a young man. This reality, pace, and acting of the lead character was brilliant.For those who say a kid has no stress...look again.How easily we forget!How easily we forget!